Sylvia Ashley
Encyclopedia : S : SY : SYL : Sylvia Ashley
Sylvia Ashley (April 1, 1904 – June 29, 1977) was an English model, actress and socialite, who was best-known for her marriages.
She was born Edith Louisa Hawkes in Paddington, London, England, the daughter of Arthur Hawkes and Edith Florence Hyde. (Although she preferred giving her year of birth as 1906, the England and Wales Civil Registration Index, Vol. 1a, Page 26, shows it was recorded during the June quarter of 1904, District of Paddington.) Her sister was Lillian Vera Hawkes (March 6, 1910-January 1, 1997), who married the British film producer Basil Bleck.
Taking the name Sylvia, she worked as a lingerie model and became a Cochran Dancer, the British equivalent of a Ziegfeld Follies Girl. After this brief career in the chorus line of musical comedy, she went on to appear in a number of West End plays. She made her debut in Midnight Follies. In 1925, she acted in Tell me More at London's Winter Garden Theatre, and in The Whole Town's Talking.
Her first marriage gave her the title Sylvia, Lady Ashley, which a lot of people continued to call her, but she went on to marry two famous actors, another lord, and finally a prince.
She had five husbands: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Ashley (married February 3, 1927-divorced November 28, 1934); actor Douglas Fairbanks (married March 7, 1936-his death December 12, 1939); Edward John Stanley, 6th Baron Sheffield and Stanley of Alderley (married January 18, 1944-divorced 1948); actor Clark Gable (married December 20, 1949-divorced April 21, 1952); and Ambassador Hotel executive and race-car driver Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (married 1954).
Ashley discovered the death of Fairbanks when responding to the baleful moans of his Mastif bulldog named Marco Polo. She collapsed and was placed under the care of a doctor. Soon her sister, Vera Bleck, arrived to stay with her. Fairbanks was at first in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale. Sylvia then commissioned an elaborate monument for him, at a cost of $40,000, and had him entombed in the cemetery in Hollywood.
In a letter to the designer, Howard Seidell, she stated, "The memorial is indeed exquisite, with all the classic dignity and perfect symmetry that my husband loved so well."
On March 1, 1941, Sylvia, her sister, Vera Bleck, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Fox Zanuck, as directors, filed articles of incorporation for an organization known as the British Distressed Areas Fund, with headquarters in Los Angeles, with the purpose of soliciting funds to provide food, clothing and medical aid for refugees of World War II.
She lived in New York with her last husband, Prince Dimitri, but eventually moved back to London. In 1964, she bought a home at Sunset Boulevard and Amalfi Drive in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles and sold her home in London.
Ashley was described by actor David Niven in his autobiography as "a ravishing blond [sic] beauty, outspoken and impeccable sense of humour. She was a selfish woman. She was a man's woman. She was devoted to the great indoors, to her milky white skin, her flawless complexion, loathed the thought of animals being slaughtered, was happiest among the chattering chic of café society and owned a Chihuahua the size of a mouse called Minnie. She adored spending money."
Sylvia Ashley died of cancer at age 73 in Los Angeles. She is interred as Princess Sylvia Djordjadze in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, her grave not being too far from the tomb of Fairbanks.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.